Capcom showed off 25 minutes of the newly announced Monster Hunter: World during a special event in Japan earlier today.
Introducing the gameplay, producer Ryozo Tsujimoto explained that the subtitle “World” indicates the fact that the game includes the world of Monster Hunter as a fully dynamic one — and once the action begins, we really get to see what “dynamic” entails.
Things start off simple enough, with the player accepting a quest as we’re offered a look at the map. However, this is when things start to become a little less standard. Upon leaving the base, players will witness something that is rarely if ever seen in the Monster Hunter series: monsters fighting and even eating each other. To be clear, monsters have exhibited such behavior in the past: certain monsters will retreat and eat a herbivore in a different zone for stamina when their fatigued, and two monsters will actually fight one another if left to their own devices for a long enough period of time — though expecting anything other than a few love taps from either side is wishful thinking at best.
In Monster Hunter: World, however, monsters fighting among themselves is commonplace and understanding how the ecosystem works is essential to the player’s success.
We immediately see the importance of this when the player lures the target towards another monster to use as a distraction. While they’re fighting, players have the option of healing or even sharpening/reloading their weapon without ramifications.
Next are things we already saw at E3: trapping monsters in vines and attacking it with a dagger while riding around on it. Afterward, the player once again lures the monster to fight another, and even uses an explosive barrel to blow up a part of the environment — the dam in this case, washing both the player and monster away to a different part of the map. We already saw how players can make parts of the environment collapses on their enemies, so its nice to see that interacting with the environment has more to it than just offense.
Lastly, we get to see some multiplayer once three other hunters join the hunt using the drop-in multiplayer feature. The party returns to camp via fast travel where they can change equipment and stock up on supplies, before heading out to finish the quest once and for all. They track down the original target and using a combination of their weapons, tools and environment they manage to take it down following an epic confrontation.
Monster Hunter: World is set for a worldwide in early 2018. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions will arrive first, while the PC version will arrive some time after.
Check out the footage from the event below (46:31 to 01:11:14):
